Today's Athletes

I had something minor to complain about earlier but it was just that, minor.  I came across something that really set me off on a tangent to the point where I erased my post as it had little to do with the discussion and I thought it would be great to talk about here.  It had to do with an article written by Charles P. Pierce for Grantland (The Saints, Head-hunting, and (Another) Disaster for the NFL) regarding something questionable that the Saints were doing.  My feeling is that they got caught and they are being used as an example,  I'm not going to go into that any further as my personal feeling is that it is a well done article that covers most of the issue.  What I am going to go into though is
the condition of the "athlete" of today.


Let's stick with the NFL players to start with.  If you look at the history of the game you would see that many of the original stars of the game played every play of every game until injury or retirement.  There were very few that were specialized to just defense or offense and even fewer that were specifically termed pass rusher or third down backs.  Your specialization was either rushing the passer or coverage, blocking on the line or handling the ball.  And at the end of the play you didn't go to the sideline to stick a mask on your face with 100% oxygen pumping out of it.  You went to the sideline to get a drink during a timeout.


So I know what you are thinking, the game has evolved, right?  Perhaps but at the same time, if you look back even to the 1980's you will see that the oxygen mask wasn't so heavily used, it wasn't until the late 1990's that it started.  And now it doesn't matter what game you watch you will see at least one camera angle where you see a player sitting on the bench with the oxygen mask in front of his face.  What has happened is that the players have gone from athletes to overweight, overpaid players.  What I mean there is that when they were in high school they certainly didn't have oxygen masks sitting on the sidelines for them to use at the end of a play, it is considered a drug so it can't be administered to high school students, and they did fine.  They probably played a lot more plays per game than they do during an NFL game.  And it is easy to see why.  There is a real fascination with weight in the NFL, especially when you are talking about players that are on the line.  Defensive or offensive linemen are getting huge!  I remember back in the 1980's the Redskins had an offensive line called "The Hogs."  They averaged something like 240 pounds or something like that.  In today's game you would be hard pressed to find a lineman that was less than 280, with 310+ being common.  Take a look at some of them, they have a waste-line that easily eclipses 46 inches and that is below the flab that hangs over it!  It's no wonder the average NFL career for a lineman is only a couple of years, human bones and joints aren't designed to support that kind of weight.  Look at some of the greatest players that had long careers, they weren't overweight.  Think along the lines of Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Michael Strahan, they were players that took the game as a job.  Their success and health came from year round training and maintaining a healthy weight, not by being so overweight that they were good because no one could move them.


What compounds the issue is that the announcers constantly talk about how great an athlete these players are.  They don't seem to take into account that they are on the field for less than half of the plays for their side of the ball.  Some of that is the specialization that has occurred but a larger part is that they are completely out of shape and need to use the oxygen mask to avoid a heart attack.  I once heard John Madden talk about a player that slowly gained weight by saying, "He came into the league as a linebacker but ate his way to a lineman."  It was really a celebration of how big the guy was getting.  He could no longer run the way a linebacker needed to so he was moved to the line where he didn't need to run as much.  And this kind of thing is a big part of the reason that there is a weight problem in the United States.  Kids look up to these players as idols.  And when the weight is celebrated they begin to believe that it is perfectly fine to be overweight.


Now let's look beyond the NFL's players.  Have you looked at the typical baseball player?  It is not uncommon to see them with a huge got that overhangs their waste.  I find it really pathetic to watch them try to run when they don't hit it out of the park.  I have never been a fast runner but I bet I could easily keep up with most of them when it comes to running the bases.


Many of the other sports don't have these issues because the players are constantly moving and a high weight is really a drawback.  And even when you do get someone that is heavy, they soon realize that the weight is going to cut their career short so they work to lose it.


Unfortunately, all sports are just like everything else in the United States, financially driven.  Provided these overweight players (not athletes) provide a win the fans will continue to pay.  And the advertisers will continue to pay which means the cycle will continue.